


Kindred 3: The Musicians

by torturingtaylor (itzaimster)



Series: Kindred Series [3]
Category: Hanson
Genre: Brothers, Clones, Conspiracy, Drug Use, Gen, Genetics, Hostage Situations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-16
Updated: 2016-10-06
Packaged: 2018-08-14 10:05:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 20,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8009413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itzaimster/pseuds/torturingtaylor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Taylor is interrogated in the labs which causes a sudden race to get out of Tulsa. Emma isn't happy that Carey has decided not to help Taylor, but Jesse takes things into his own hands.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part One

Both Taylor and Carey’s heads snapped up as the metal door opened. Mark was standing back against the wall with his eyes closed and he didn’t bother opening them.  
“So sorry to make your acquaintance under such harrowing circumstances…” the doctor’s voice came through as he walked toward Taylor’s cell, “but it’s good to see you back nonetheless. Please place your wrist against the door here.”  
Taylor looked over his shoulder at Carey. His eyes were red but gave away nothing.  
“Just a formality, for the record,” Morris insisted as if to pacify them.  
Taylor then took a deep breath and stood from the bed to make his way to the door. He saw Mark’s eyes on him as he held his arm up for the scan.  
“ _Designation: C-1. Alias: Jordan Hanson._ ”  
“Taylor,” Morris nodded before moving on to Carey’s door.  
“What does this matter?” Carey’s eyes narrowed, “what’s with all the formality? We’re just your playthings anyway.”  
“I assure you Mr Miller, this is not ‘play’,” Morris insisted, “and we do fully intend to have you on your way again. Our men on the ground were just a little startled by last night’s events and I guess you could say… panicked.”  
“They’re not the only ones,” Mark muttered from behind him.  
“We had guessed,” Morris assured over his shoulder, “yet another reason it is good to have you here. We can all take a moment to calm ourselves down.”  
“I don’t consider being caged a time to calm down,” Taylor folded his arms, not having moved from the door otherwise, “I just want to go home.”  
“Yes, well… we do also have some questions for you before you can go,” Morris shot him a glance.  
“Of course you do,” was Mark’s retort.  
“About what?” Taylor frowned, “your guys know what happened, we had nothing to do with it. If they hadn’t have been there Colin would still be alive.”  
“We are taking statements from each of them,” Morris nodded, “but I was speaking more of your relationships with Mr Reis.”  
“Relationships? I didn’t know the guy! Yesterday was the second time I’d ever seen him!”  
“Then why – Mr Hanson – were you at his apartment barely a week ago?”  
“Don’t answer that,” Carey scoffed as Morris made his way back to Taylor’s door.  
“It doesn’t matter now anyway,” Taylor realised aloud, “Colin had an important meeting with a chapter of the Italian mob to settle some accounts. He was certain if he didn’t show, they were going to kill him.”  
He shook his head.  
“Like I said, it doesn’t matter now. You got to him first.”  
“Rest assured the last thing we wanted was Mr Reis’ passing,” Morris insisted, turning to walk back to Carey’s door again.  
“That’s not what it looked like last time he was here,” Mark spoke up, “you had him on oxygen, under sedation.”  
“We were monitoring him yes,” Morris considered, “Mr Reis was susceptible to a heart condition. I take it he didn’t share that with any of you?”  
“What heart condition?” Taylor frowned.  
“Do we have it?” Mark was suddenly paying attention.  
“We haven’t monitored any of you long enough to find out, but I’m sure you would have shown physical signs by now. Please place your arm here,” Morris indicated Carey’s door, “we had records of Mr Reis having surgery back in 2010 to remove part of his rib cage.”  
Taylor felt his face go red and quickly turned away so Morris wouldn’t see. Carey had opted to go to the door which helped to cover for him.  
“ _Designation: C-2. Alias: Carey Miller._ ”  
“Thank you Carey,” Morris nodded, placing the scanner into his coat pocket and walking away.  
“Why his rib?” Mark’s eyes followed him.  
“A story for another time perhaps,” Morris offered a smile, “but as we’ve already discussed, you boys have nothing to worry about. Especially if you come straight to us with any health issues. I’ll be back this afternoon to give you all an update on where we are, and where we’ll go from here.”  
Taylor ground his teeth as Morris disappeared, glad he hadn’t noticed his reaction. Carey took a seat on his bed again as he looked him over.  
“What is it?” he asked, catching Taylor’s attention.  
“I don’t wanna say,” his eyes narrowed, unsure of who might be listening in.  
There were surveillance cameras stationed at either end of the corridor but he didn’t know if they included audio. He wasn’t going to bring up Isaac’s name unless he absolutely had to.  
“Unless it’s going to help us get out of here, I don’t care,” Mark assured, “so what do we do now?”  
“What _can_ we do?” Carey scoffed, “we just have to sit and wait and hope for the best at this point. I doubt anyone’s going to come and save us this time.”

“No, I haven’t heard anything,” Jesse shrugged, “not since talking to Taylor the other day. Why, you think something’s going down?”  
“I’m sure it is. They all had deadlines to meet and have missed them,” Alex replied.  
“What do you want me to do?”  
There was a pause on the line as Alex considered.  
“I don’t know,” he admitted, “Mark and Carey were prepared to take on the labs. I can’t send you in there on your own.”  
“I mean I’m game,” Jesse pulled the phone from between his ear and shoulder before closing the hood, “if you could talk me through it, but it depends how messed up this whole situation is I mean… I got people to consider.”  
“And so do they,” Alex agreed, “I can’t ask you to risk yourself.”  
“I dunno about that,” Jesse considered, “I mean I’ve already got this thing in my arm, they know where I am if they want to come get me. They haven’t yet.”  
“We don’t know what they’re doing with the other three yet, maybe it’s only a matter of time,” Alex reasoned, “let me check the feeds from Nevada and get back to you.”  
“I’ll be here,” Jesse assured before hanging up.  
He paused as he looked the car over. Stopping only to rub the grease from his hands, he picked the phone up again and dialled the number for 3CG. The only other numbers he had were Taylor’s cell and home but he figured they’d be useless (and he knew Taylor wouldn’t like him calling the house in case one of the kids picked up).  
A messaging service answered and he rolled his eyes waiting for it to play through.  
“Uh… hey. It’s me. But, probably not ‘that’ me. If you know what I mean. Uh… If Ike or Zac get this… you know what? Never mind.”  
He was about to hang up when he heard a click. Pausing for a moment to see if someone had picked up, he sighed with relief when he heard Zac’s voice.  
“Who is this?” he’d asked.  
“Uh my name’s Jesse, we haven’t met,” he scratched his head, “but I wasn’t sure if you guys had heard what’s going on yet or not.”  
“That’s a ‘not’. What do you know? Where’s Taylor?!”  
“We don’t know yet for sure but we think the labs have him. And Carey… and Mark and Colin,” Jesse added as an afterthought, “so everyone but me and Alex. A’s going to do some stalking for us and figure out if they’re there or not.”  
“So you don’t know where he is.”  
“Uh… nope. Not yet,” Jesse couldn’t help but wonder why he’d called in the first place.  
“Can you find out?”  
“I hope so. I mean I’m guessing it’s the same place they took us all last time and I know the guys broke Colin out so… I’m kinda just waiting for Alex to call back. I’m sorry. I’m kinda freaking out a bit here and I figured you guys might need to know that maybe you should be freaking out too because I mean Tay’s actually _gone_ whereas I’m just kinda ‘here’ wondering if I’m next.”  
There was a pause on the line that made Jesse bite his lip.  
“Sorry. I’ll call back when I have something.”  
“Thanks for the update,” Zac came back, “can I give you my number so you don’t have to call here again?”  
“Sure,” Jesse darted around to the side of the car to grab a pen and paper from inside so he could write it down.

“Care I’m sorry.”  
Taylor and Carey both looked up to where Mark was standing back against the wall with his arms folded and his eyes closed.  
“For what?” Carey frowned.  
“For this. This is my fault.”  
“How do you figure?” Carey was genuinely confused, “you think we wouldn’t have ended up here anyway?”  
“Not if I hadn’t let him get the gun.”  
“You didn’t know,” Taylor shrugged, “you didn’t know what he was going to do.”  
“I knew he was upset,” Mark stared him down, “I knew that he was desperate to stay away from them. I should have put two and two together, and I didn’t.”  
“None of us want to be here,” Carey amended, “doesn’t mean I’m ready to kill myself over it.”  
“And you don’t know what he went through after we left,” Mark pointed out.  
“Do you?” Carey hit back immediately, “what did he say to you? Did you ask about the missing time?”  
“I did,” Mark nodded, “but he didn’t make a lot of sense.”  
“What are you talking about?” Taylor looked between them worriedly, “he looked fine to me.”  
“He wasn’t,” Mark scorned.  
“What are you hiding?” Carey’s eyes narrowed, before he visibly jumped as the door opened again.  
Morris had returned along with two other masked men in lab coats.  
“Sorry to leave you waiting all afternoon,” he apologised, but it didn’t seem genuine at all, “Carey Miller you are free to go.”  
“What? Why him?!” Mark pounced.  
“Why only me?” Carey also frowned as the two handlers came to unlock his door.  
“We still have some questions for Taylor, and Marcus needs a new implant,” the doctor’s eyes went to Mark, “don’t worry, they’ll follow you shortly.”  
Mark cursed under his breath.  
“What questions?” Taylor’s eyes were on Morris, “why can’t we do it now?”  
“One thing at a time,” Morris insisted.  
Carey didn’t bother standing from the bed, seeing the black hood already in one of their hands and the tranquiliser in another. He forced himself to keep his hands flat on the bed as the one holding the hood took hold of his head and the other depressed the needle into his neck.  
“How long is it going to take?” Taylor stood from the bed, the sight making him even more nervous, “I _really_ need to get home!”  
“Patience,” Morris looked him in the eye again, “have I given you reason not to trust us so far?”  
Taylor paused at that. Personally, they hadn’t. But after what had happened to Colin…  
They were distracted by Carey collapsing back onto the bed. The hood was quickly placed over his head and his wrists were promptly tied.  
“Where are you taking him?” Mark was at his door, looking apprehensive.  
“Back to his previous drop point I’d assume. That will be up to the Los Angeles drivers,” Morris gave him a nod as Carey was taken out.  
“Hurt him and it’ll be the last thing you ever do,” Mark warned them as they passed.  
Morris turned to watch them leave, not moving himself. Nearly as soon as they’d cleared the door another man entered and handed him the tool he’d used to insert the tracers into their arms last time.  
“I’ll need some help with this one,” Morris armed it, “call someone to help you restrain him for me.”  
Mark was already pacing with a look that could kill. Taylor sat himself back down on the bed, already feeling like he could cut the air with a knife. He didn’t know why they couldn’t just get on with asking their questions before this so he wouldn’t have to be here while Mark was about to fight.


	2. Part Two

“Hey.”  
“Hey,” Jesse quickly wiped his hands again as he answered the phone, “what did you find?”  
“Well… I haven’t come up with anything for the labs yet, but I might have another idea for something you can do… but it depends on what you think.”  
“Hit me,” his eyes narrowed.  
“I’ve found the home addresses of a couple of the guys who took you in. They were in the personnel files for the labs.”  
Jesse paused, thinking it over.  
“I know there’s one in particular I’d like to pay a visit,” he assured, “but I wouldn’t know their names.”  
“One of them lives just outside of Dallas. I’ve matched his photo to the team that picked you up – and I’m pretty sure he worked Taylor’s abduction too.”  
“Makes sense, we’re close enough,” Jesse closed the hood of the truck, “do they have another center in Dallas?”  
“If they do I haven’t found it yet,” Alex admitted, “but I haven’t been on this 24/7 either.”  
“Have you seen the feeds from Nevada yet?”  
“I’ve seen a few of them. They definitely have Mark, Carey and Taylor back where we were before. No sign of Colin yet.”  
“So maybe they have him where he was before?” Jesse suggested, “give me the address for the guy in Dallas. Leave it to me.”  
“Are you sure? I don’t want-“  
“I’m sure,” Jesse insisted, “trust me. Walk in the park.”

“Where is he?” was the first thing Natalie demanded as she answered the phone.  
“I don’t know,” Zac replied, worry showing in his voice, “but we had a call from Jesse this morning. He thinks the rest of them were taken back in.”  
Natalie took a deep breath and put her hand to her forehead.  
“Why?” her voice remained stern.  
“I don’t know. He said he’s going to call back when he hears from the other one… Alex I think?”  
“Why didn’t he call here?”  
“Nat, I don’t know! I just thought I’d let you know he called and that he’s going to call back when he learns anything!”  
Natalie hung up on him. She made her way to Taylor’s study and quickly found his small address book. Immediately going to the back she found Jesse’s number and dialled.  
“Hello…?” he didn’t recognise her cell number.  
“Jesse?”  
“Yes?”  
“It’s Natalie Hanson.”  
“…Oh.”  
“I just had a call from Zac-“  
“Yeah I’m sorry, I just didn’t want to call the house in case the kids thought I was their Dad or something. But we found Tay.”  
“You did…?” she’d been about to rip into him but he’d managed to give her pause.  
“Yeah he’s back at the labs in Nevada. I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about. Something must have happened with Colin and the Miller brothers but we’re on it. I’m actually about to go and see someone about it so… now that I have your number I can certainly call you first if you’d like.”  
“I would,” she frowned, finding his tone odd.  
She couldn’t tell if he was taking this seriously or not, but his accent was putting her off a little too.  
“Then I will,” he promised, “don’t worry. These guys do everything by the book, I’m sure Tay is fine. They just don’t seem to take into consideration the fact that we have lives ourselves.”  
Natalie couldn’t help but smile a little at that.  
“Thanks Jesse,” he’d managed to calm her a bit, “please, just bring my husband home.”  
“I’ll do my best.”

“We’ll need to tranquilise him,” Morris was already fed up.  
“You can keep your needles the fuck away from me too,” Mark was building up a sweat, pacing at the back of his cell after the handlers had backed off.  
“They won’t let you go if you don’t have it,” Taylor insisted, “just let them do it and deal with it later!”  
“Fuck you!” Mark spat, “you might be fine with this shit happening to us all the time, but I’m not!”  
“I want to get out of here just as much as you do!” Taylor scorned, “fighting isn’t the way to do that!”  
“Your encouragement is appreciated but unnecessary,” Morris assured as he loaded the tranquiliser gun, “once we’re done with Mr Miller we’ll have him on his way, and we can concentrate on your interviews.”  
“Interviews? Plural?” Taylor’s brow furrowed.  
Morris handed the gun to a handler who promptly aimed it through the wires. Mark paused as he tried to judge the trajectory but it was fired into his arm before he could dodge.  
He sat heavily onto the bed as he pulled it out, throwing it to the floor in indignation. He could already feel it starting to work.  
“How long is it going to take?!” Taylor demanded.  
“It will take as long as it takes,” Morris insisted calmly, indicating for them to go ahead and enter Mark’s cell again.  
“Can’t I at least call someone? To let them know I’m okay?”  
But Mark had now collapsed and no one was paying attention to him. Taylor watched with bated breath as they turned Mark onto his stomach on the bed before finding a spot on the back of his neck. The new chip went in there, and Morris checked it before letting anyone leave.  
“ _Designation: C-6. Alias: Marcus Miller._ ”  
“Take him out,” Morris gave a nod, one of them pulling a black hood from their lab coat pocket.  
Taylor ground his teeth as he watched, getting more and more nervous. Soon enough he was going to be left here alone. He wasn’t sure what he had to do this time to convince them to let him go. Last time had been easy in comparison.  
He watched as Mark’s wrists were tied and he was carried out. Morris followed them without another word, and Taylor was left alone in the cells.  
He checked the clock. It wasn’t even noon, but he knew once again he was in a different time zone.

Jesse watched from his truck as the man locked his front door and made his way to his car. He waited until he’d been sitting in the car for a moment before getting out of his truck and making his way over.  
He could see the man looking through the contacts on his cell phone with a scowl on his face.  
He definitely recognised the face.  
He tapped on the window. The man jumped a few inches before squinting up toward him, his face falling when he saw who was outside. Jesse used his other hand to hold up the car’s starter motor.  
The man took his window down a few inches.  
“Hey Derek! I don’t think you’re going anywhere without this,” Jesse’s brow rose.  
“What are you doing here?” the man was on edge, “how did you find me?”  
“Let’s just say a little birdie told me,” Jesse shrugged, “got a few questions for you, hope you don’t mind.”  
“I need to go,” the man said between his teeth, “I’m needed at-“  
“At the labs?” Jesse guessed, “great, because my questions are _about_ the labs. More accurately what’s going on with who you have there… Why did you take them in?”  
“I don’t have to answer anything,” the man insisted, “you have no right to come to my home, disrupt my family, endanger _my kids_ …”  
“See you’ve disrupted a few families yourself, so I’m not buying it,” Jesse scorned, “what, you think Taylor Hanson’s kids don’t count? So tell me why he was taken in.”  
The man went to raise his window again and Jesse shoved the motor in the gap to keep it open. It made the man flinch.  
“I don’t think you want this to go the hard way,” he tried to reason, “so just answer the questions. They aren’t exactly hard.”  
“I’m calling the police,” he pulled up his cell phone again.  
“Go ahead,” Jesse assured, “by the time they get here they won’t be able to help you.”  
“Are you threatening me?”  
“I thought that was obvious,” Jesse frowned, “come on, please keep up with me. I don’t want this to take all day.”  
The man stared down at his phone, knowing he was right. Jesse amiably gave him the moment to think it over.  
“C-3 shot himself last night,” he finally gave in, “the retrieval team panicked, took them all in.”  
“Colin’s dead?” Jesse’s brow rose.  
The man nodded.  
“I don’t know what they’ll do about it yet, I was about to go into work and find out,” he said pointedly.  
“What does that mean for the rest of us?” Jesse frowned.  
“Nothing, as far as I’m aware.”  
“And you don’t know when they’ll be let go?”  
“Not until I go to work,” the man insisted as Jesse’s phone suddenly rang.  
He quickly pulled it from his pocket and saw that it was Alex. Rolling his eyes and figuring he wouldn’t get any more out of his previous attacker, he turned to walk away as he answered it.  
“You’re free to go. Oh and, by the way…” he turned back and pointed to the motor still wedged in the window, “good luck getting that back in because it was a _bitch_ to get out. Alex?”  
He made his way back to his truck and got in.  
“I just got off the phone with Carey.”  
“What?” Jesse frowned as he started the truck, “so they’re out?”  
“Not exactly. Carey’s out, but Mark and Taylor are still there. I think. But Colin…”  
“Is dead, I know. I just found out myself,” Jesse didn’t look back as he drove away, “so now what?”

Taylor’s knee was bouncing when the door opened again hours later. It was a handler bringing him a second tray of food with Morris just behind him.  
“Face the wall,” the handler instructed as usual.  
Taylor stared at Morris for a moment, before nervously standing and going to put his hands flat against the tiles. The door opened and closed quickly and Taylor fleetingly wondered if he’d missed a chance for escape.  
“Okay.”  
“Can we start yet?” Taylor asked as he turned back, coming to fetch the tray.  
“All in good time,” Morris assured as the handler left, “in the meantime I’d like to offer you a shower and a change of clothes.”  
“I’d love a shower,” Taylor insisted, “but I want one at home. I _need_ to get home. I’ve got kids to consider.”  
“I’d like to talk about your offspring,” an interested look crossed the doctor’s face, making Taylor pause, “I have noticed that you are the only subject that has managed to reproduce, despite at least three others having opportunity.”  
“What do you mean?” Taylor frowned.  
“Well for starters…” Morris paced a little, “Jesse told us he’d been trying for many years to have children with his wife. We have medical records that show us Colin and his wife had made many appointments with a Chicago fertility clinic over the past year, and Carey… well. We’re aware that Carey simply hasn’t used protection during sexual encounters with his fiancé and yet nothing. We assume his brother acts much the same but we’re unable to track his many girlfriends.”  
“What are you saying?” Taylor frowned, “you think I’m an anomaly?”  
“To put it simply, yes,” Morris agreed, “and I’d wonder if you’d agree to let us study at least one or two of your offspring – preferably one of each sex – to see if they exhibit any anomalies in their genetics themselves.”  
“I don’t want anyone touching my kids,” Taylor’s head shook without him knowing, “they have nothing to do with your experiments and I want to keep it that way.”  
“As I’ve said before,” Morris was still smiling, “your wants don’t necessarily come into question. However before we get too carried away with where your DNA has gone, we’re slightly more interested in where it came from.”  
He paused in front of the cell door.  
“I’d like to ask you some more questions about your parents.”


	3. Part Three

“I swear this better be important,” Isaac was annoyed as he closed the driver’s door, “with everything going on with Tay right now and they _still_ want this weird family dinner…”  
“It might pay to hear them out,” Nikki shrugged as she fetched their daughter from the backseat – the boys already racing their way up to the house, “I’m sure they wouldn’t insist if it wasn’t.”  
Isaac pulled a face, not wanting to say any more. He hadn’t told Nikki everything and he didn’t feel like it was his place to. This was Taylor’s problem.  
He followed his family up to the house where they were greeted by his sister. Isaac almost immediately pulled his father aside for an explanation, but Walker insisted that it wait until after they’d eaten.  
Dinner was a little tense, but over in good time. Diana suggested Zoe take the kids outside, and she obliged.  
“Maybe Nikki should-“  
“No,” Diana cut her son off, “we need to speak with both of you.”  
Isaac gave his wife a worried glance. This was only getting more and more confusing.  
Once the children were out of earshot both Diana and Walker took a seat across the table from Isaac and Nikki.   
“Now you’re scaring me,” Isaac said straight out, “I thought tonight was going to be about Taylor.”  
“It is,” Walker agreed, entwining his fingers.  
“I haven’t told Nikki everything,” Isaac frowned.  
“Then we need to,” Diana insisted.  
“Tell me what?” Nikki was officially worried now.  
“The night that Taylor was hit by that car,” Isaac jumped in before his parents could, “I wasn’t entirely honest about the circumstances.”  
He paused for a moment before reaching for his phone.  
“Who are you calling?” Nikki frowned.  
“No one,” Isaac assured, “just give me a moment.”  
“Taylor was part of a genetic experiment conducted three decades ago,” Walker spoke up before Isaac could find what he was looking for, “he was one of many embryos involved in a cloning procedure which was abandoned just a few months before the babies were brought to term.”  
“Cloning?” Nikki’s brow rose, making Isaac wince.  
“Yes, cloning,” Diana confirmed, “I was one of many volunteers to carry them. We were lucky enough to be able to bring him into the world. Others weren’t so lucky.”  
“I haven’t heard this story,” Isaac looked up from his phone, “all I heard was you told Tay he was a twin.”  
“Because he asked,” Diana agreed, keeping her eye on Nikki’s reaction, “his twin was stillborn.”  
“Taylor was a twin?!”  
“You’re gonna have to keep up because I’m about to hit you with more,” Isaac mused before placing the phone on the table and sliding it toward her.  
The photo of Mark was on screen.  
“We met some of them.”  
Nikki picked the phone up so she could study the photo. When she covered her mouth Isaac was worried she was going to be sick.  
“How many are there?” she struggled to ask.  
“I don’t think we know for sure,” Isaac gave his parents a glance, “but I’ve met two of them, including this one, and I know Tay’s met… I think five?”  
“These two times he’s gone missing, he’s being abducted by these scientists,” Walker’s use of the word ‘scientists’ was anything but civil, “I can only imagine the tests they’re running. But Taylor’s clones aren’t all we’ve asked you here to talk about I’m afraid.”  
“I don’t know if I can handle much more right now,” Nikki shook her head, “this is a lot. I feel like I’m being pranked.”  
“Trust me, we felt the same,” Isaac assured, “Zac’s the only other one who knows so far.”  
“Is this why you went to Chicago?” she looked him in the eye, “without me?”  
“Partly. Tay had to do something for one of them,” Isaac nodded, “I have a feeling it might be why he’s in trouble now.”  
“He may not be the only one in trouble,” Walker cautioned.  
Isaac’s eyes locked on his father’s.  
“Which is why we’ve asked you here,” Diana amended.  
“Why would we be in trouble?” Isaac’s voice had lowered.  
“Because of how the experiment came to be,” Walker leant forward to explain, making Isaac frown.  
“Taylor and the others were not cloned entirely from their original DNA counterpart. Each of the embryos was genetically modified in order to prove that they could change features at will, such as eye color for example. The results were then replicated to be sure they were not a fluke.”  
“What are you saying?” Isaac wasn’t following, “and how do you know all this in the first place if you were volunteers?”  
“We used to work for them,” Diana offered, taking their attention, “we weren’t just volunteers, we were pioneers.”  
“We offered our eldest son’s DNA as the mould for the modifications,” Walker added.  
Nikki’s eyes shot to Isaac. He felt as though his mind had gone blank. He couldn’t even react.  
“So you’re saying… Isaac has more to do with this than Taylor, when they’re Taylor’s clones?” Nikki tried to understand.  
“Technically they are Isaac’s clones,” Diana corrected softly, “just changed slightly.”  
“We’re not exactly twins,” Isaac frowned, “there must have been a lot of modifying going on.”  
At his father’s nod, he took a deep breath and sat back.  
“So now what?” he asked, eyes tracing the tabletop.  
“Every time Taylor is taken, they come closer to figuring out who we really are,” Diana began to show her worry, “we had to hide you as babies because they were determined to dissolve the project. We managed to warn a few other mothers who also escaped in time. But now that they’ve made the connection between Taylor and his doubles… we’re worried they’ll come for you.”  
“And if they figure out who we really are,” Walker added, “they’ll come for us too.”  
“Does Zoe know yet?” Isaac asked, making Nikki look toward the door.  
“No,” Walker was stern, “and we don’t plan to tell her.”  
“This doesn’t sound like something you can keep a secret for long,” Nikki put in, “what if something goes wrong?”  
“That’s what we’re working on right now,” Walker gave his wife a glance, “we may have to leave Tulsa in the meantime. We’re just hoping to hear from Taylor first.”  
“And what if Tay doesn’t come back this time?” Isaac shrugged, “what if this is the time they decide they want to keep him?”  
“We don’t think they will,” Walker tried to reassure him.  
“Then why take him in the first place? It doesn’t make sense!” Isaac’s voice rose and he stood from the chair, “one moment you’re telling us we’re going to have to run for our lives, and the next you’re saying you’re not really worried about Tay despite the fact that _he isn’t here_ and he sure as Hell isn’t gone of his own free will.”  
He paused when Nikki put a hand on his arm, and instantly felt out of place raising his voice at the dinner table.   
“What do you want us to do?” he relented, trying to find some middle ground.  
“Prepare,” Walker insisted, looking up at him steadily, “pack anything you can’t afford to lose. Be ready. If you get that call… it’s time to go.”  
Nikki slid her hand down Isaac’s arm in order to take his hand instead. She was still having trouble processing, and somewhere in the back of her mind was still expecting Isaac to laugh it off and say that it was absurd.   
“And what about Natalie?” Isaac asked.  
“We’ll talk to her,” Diana looked to her husband, who nodded.  
“We’ll talk to her tonight, if possible,” Walker agreed.  
“And Zac? Jess? What about them?” he shrugged, “are you worried about them too?”  
“Not immediately,” Diana’s expression said otherwise, “but we will have to warn them.”  
“Particularly Zac, as he does know what’s going on,” Walker somewhat agreed.  
“Half of it anyway,” Isaac scratched at his chin.  
“We should go,” Nikki suggested, “it’s getting late, and it’ll be a long night.”  
“I’m supposed to see Zac in the morning,” Isaac added as Nikki stood, “we’re going to 3CG to see if Tay’s there again, because that seems to be where they prefer to leave him. I can tell him what’s going on then.”  
“It might be better to wait until we can all talk it out,” Walker suggested.  
“We might not have that option,” Isaac was stern as he dropped Nikki’s hand and made his way to the outside door to call for his kids.

“I don’t know what else to tell you,” Taylor shrugged, “my parents are good people, and I’ve lived in Tulsa my whole life.”  
“Now we know that simply isn’t true,” Morris was looking at his clipboard with an interested expression, “we know you travelled a lot as a child due to your father’s work… supposedly. We have records of you attending a public school in Trinidad…”  
“It barely counts,” Taylor shrugged, “I don’t remember it.”  
“You don’t remember it?” Morris’ brow rose.  
“I was a kid!” Taylor insisted, “it was a long time ago!”  
“And you never asked your parents about it?”  
Taylor shrugged again.  
“I had better things to do,” he insisted, “my brother and I were focused on music already. We were trying to get gigs.”  
Morris dropped the clipboard to his side, regarding Taylor curiously. When he paused a long time before saying anything Taylor couldn’t help but gulp a little.  
“I have to be honest, I’m not very inclined to believe what you’re telling me,” Morris told him.  
“What reason do I have to lie?” Taylor frowned, hoping he was playing the part well enough.  
He had to steer them away from his parents however he could.  
“You were here when I explained to Carey Miller that we’d be very interested in any one of you who didn’t believe you were adopted,” Morris began to pace a little, only putting Taylor further on edge, “we’re also interested in who might be the eldest out of the six of you. As it turns out, when you take Colin Reis out of the equation… you’re next on the list.”  
“What does that have to do with anything?” Taylor wasn’t entirely sure and was therefore somewhat honest, “am I just next on the list to keep here? I didn’t see that anywhere in the contract.”  
“It means that so far, it was either you or Mr Reis who were first inseminated,” Morris explained, “and whoever was first, has an older sibling we are very interested in meeting. While Mr Reis did not maintain contact with his parents nor his siblings, we are of course aware that you have an older brother you are very close to.”  
Taylor didn’t know what to say to that, he just shifted his weight uncomfortably.  
“The fact that your parents moved you around so much as children also casts some doubt on the legitimacy of their identities.”  
“You think they lied to us?” he kept his eyes down, “for our whole lives? Just to save themselves?”  
“No,” Morris considered, “I think it was to save you.”  
Taylor looked up from where he sat on the bed, worry evident in his eyes. He didn’t know what else he could say. Morris already had it all together.  
“And your brother, of course,” Morris added, “I’d like you to give me your parents’ home address and phone number so we can contact them and sort this all out once and for all.”  
“I can’t do that,” Taylor shook his head, his voice quiet.  
“No?” the doctor’s brow rose.  
Taylor turned his eyes away and began to pick at his nails. Even if they had put two and two together, he didn’t have to make it easy for them.  
With any luck his parents had already left town again.  
“We’ll see about that,” Morris assured, making Taylor give him a wary glance, “but it’s getting late. I’ll see you bright and early in the morning, Mr Hanson…”  
Morris gave him a smile as he walked away. The door closed with finality behind him, and Taylor put his head in his hands.  
He wasn’t going home this time. He knew it.


	4. Part Four

“Mark’s home.”  
“Oh thank God,” Carey’s hand went to his forehead, “thanks Alex, thanks for letting me know.”  
“They’ve only just dropped him off so he’ll probably be asleep for a while. But I didn’t know if you’d want to go over there or…”  
“Yeah I will, thanks,” Carey checked over his shoulder to where he could hear Emma in the bathroom.  
“Are you okay?” Alex sounded like he wasn’t sure if he should ask, “I know it hasn’t been long and I don’t know what happened to Colin but…”  
“Yeah. Fine,” Carey said a little too quickly, “I mean it’s not like he was a friend or anything, it’s just… a really weird circumstance.”  
Alex was silent as he bit his lip on the other end of the line.  
“And Mark still hasn’t told me what happened to Colin in the labs.”  
“Does he know?”  
“He said Colin had said something, but didn’t have time to tell me what. I don’t know maybe it’ll help us put the pieces together on why he did it.”  
Alex took a deep breath, checking another monitor as he did so.  
“I think he might have planned it,” he revealed.  
“What do you mean?” Carey frowned.  
“I’m not sure he ever planned to make it home,” Alex went on, “I mean I looked at the guy’s accounts after he paid us and he cleaned himself out. He only had four million left, plus change.”  
“He gave us all he had?”  
“Yeah. I think there’s only enough left in the account to cover fees for his apartment for the next two years and it’s all gone.”  
“Unless he has money hidden away somewhere,” Carey reasoned, “did you find any offshore accounts?”  
“Not yet but I guess I wouldn’t blame him for having them,” Alex admitted, “I’ll keep looking.”  
“Do you know what happened to his wife? Or where she is?”  
“Still at the labs I’m assuming,” Alex shrugged, “there was no surveillance where they took her, like Colin’s room, and I haven’t seen her come out.”  
“That’s weird. Why would they keep her there?” Carey frowned.  
“I don’t know.”  
“Is Taylor still there?”  
“Still being questioned by Morris,” Alex confirmed, “but I got a bad feeling about this one.”  
“Yeah. Me too,” Carey winced, “thanks Alex. Keep me updated.”  
“Will do.”  
Carey ended the call in time for Emma to emerge from the bathroom.  
“I have to go,” he admitted.  
“What?” she frowned, obviously tired.  
“That was Alex, he said Mark’s been dropped off at home,” he explained, “I have to go check on him and see if I can find out what’s going on.”  
“Care you need sleep,” Emma insisted, “it’s nearly midnight already.”  
“I’ll sleep when I actually can,” he promised, “I’m too strung out right now. I won’t be long I promise.”  
Emma just groaned and got into the other side of the bed as Carey stood from it.  
“Don’t wake me up when you get in, I have to work tomorrow.”  
“I know,” Carey chewed his lip, wondering for a fleeting moment if this was the time to tell her that he was a sudden millionaire.  
He decided against it, instead grabbing a jacket and turning off the light as he left the room.

“You fucking creeper.”  
Carey jumped, looking across to where Mark was squinting at him from the couch.  
“They dropped you off like three hours ago,” he closed the book he’d been reading, “was wondering how long you’d take to wake up.”  
Mark groaned and stretched before rubbing at his eyes.   
“Why are you in my place at 2am?” he demanded, “why aren’t you home asleep?”  
“Alex called and let me know.”  
“Right…”  
“And I want to know what Colin told you,” Carey leant forward determinedly.  
“Of course you do.”  
“I want to know why he killed himself and this seems like the best place to start,” Carey reasoned as Mark pulled himself up, “especially considering we could be headed for a similar fate.”  
“I doubt it,” Mark’s hand went to the back of his neck, frowning as he registered the sting there.  
“Why not?” Carey shrugged, “why else would they be keeping Taylor for so long?”  
“Because he’s older,” Mark’s frown deepened, “Care can you look at the back of my neck?”  
Carey frowned but stood from the chair and made his way to the back of the couch. He leant to the side so that he wasn’t blocking the light, soon finding the wound Mark was indicating. He felt around it and soon came up with a lump similar to the one in his own wrist.  
“They tagged you,” he confirmed.  
“Get it out,” Mark’s voice was suddenly urgent, “Care get it out!”  
“I don’t think I can,” Carey’s brow furrowed, “I might hit your spine or something.”  
Mark struggled to feel for the lump, pulling away from his brother.  
“It can wait,” Carey assured, trying to calm him down, “they won’t come for you for a while, unless you’re not telling me something.”  
“I’m not hiding anything!” Mark exclaimed, “they want to find Baby Zero, that’s it!”  
“Baby Zero?” Carey frowned, “but if the experiment was canned, why would they care?”  
“Because they want the people responsible for rescuing us. And if it wasn’t Colin’s parents, then it had to have been Taylor’s because they’re the oldest.”  
Carey paused to digest it before putting his hands on his head.  
“They want the first born,” he realised.  
“The first _made_ ,” Mark corrected, “which means Baby Zero is either Colin’s estranged sibling or Isaac Hanson.”  
He couldn’t help but smirk.  
“So much for you wanting to keep Taylor out of this.”  
“So that’s why they haven’t let him go, right?” Carey confirmed, “they want to draw Isaac out and find his parents.”  
“Which isn’t going to be hard, let’s face it,” Mark shrugged.  
“What happens when they find them?”  
“I don’t know,” Mark looked away, “it depends if they still want to shut this thing down or start it up again. If they want to shut it down…”  
“They’ll kill us all,” Carey realised aloud.

“So basically… you’re saying our parents screwed up our lives before I was even born,” Zac shrugged incredulously, “before _Tay_ was even born.”  
“Uh… I guess so,” Isaac shrugged, feeling even more defeated now that he’d turned up at 3CG to find no Taylor on the couch.  
“Great,” Zac muttered under his breath, starting to pace.  
“We need to prepare for the worst,” Isaac went on, “Nikki and I spent the night packing the essentials and… I don’t know. We need to decide if we’re just going to take it and drive or maybe take the kids international…”  
“Lucy doesn’t even have a passport yet,” Zac winced, “we can’t go anywhere.”  
“I’d suggest getting her one as soon as possible.”  
Zac rubbed his face as if the enormity was just hitting him.  
“What about the studio,” he looked around, “what if Tay comes back? What about Ray and Bex?”  
“We can call them later,” Isaac insisted, “I suggest you just go home and pack. That’s all we can do right now.”  
“What about Jess? What about Nat?!”  
“Dad said they were going to call Nat last night,” Isaac remembered, “Jess I don’t know.”  
“This is crazy, you know that right?” Zac frowned, “we can’t just pack up our entire lives and leave forever because of some random cloning conspiracy! This doesn’t make sense!”  
“It’s not random, we just didn’t know about it until this year,” Isaac pointed out, “I’m only surprised we’ve lasted this long.”  
“This cannot be the way to go about this,” Zac shook his head, “have they gone to the police? Not only have they actually abducted Tay but this must be harassment of some form.”  
“I think that’s the last thing they want, considering they’re the ones who ran from the labs in the first place and warned the other parents away.”  
“What?” Zac’s eyes narrowed.  
“What did you think happened when I said they used to work there?” Isaac mused, “it’s only because of Mom and Dad that Tay is even alive let alone the rest of you.”  
Zac’s mind was racing.  
“And the rest of them,” he realised, “so Mom and Dad saved them.”  
“ _Yeah_.”  
“They gave up their own lives and now it’s our turn,” Zac scratched at his cheek, “how much time do we have?”  
“It’s anyone’s guess,” Isaac shrugged, “Tay’s been gone for what… a day and a half? It probably depends on either how long he holds out against them, or what other means they have of finding us.”  
Zac went to grab his jacket, pulling his phone from his pocket as he moved. He started texting as soon as he’d unlocked it.  
“Zac…?”  
“Kate,” he answered before his brother could ask, “I’ll get her to meet me at home and we’ll start getting everything together.”  
“Need any help?” Isaac felt he should offer.  
“Probably, yes,” Zac looked up, “but you’ve got your own to look after. Meet up later?”  
“Sure,” Isaac frowned as Zac disappeared down the hall.  
He heard the front door open and close and his truck starting up outside. Isaac scratched at his head as he looked around the empty studio forcing himself not to get emotional. They didn’t know that this was the end, but it was certainly beginning to feel like it… and there was nothing they could do about it.  
With a sigh he turned off the lights and headed for the door himself.

Taylor hadn’t slept when the door opened that morning, but Morris didn’t come through it. Two of the handlers did complete with the face masks they wore whenever the clones were either moved or medicated.  
Behind them a third was wheeling in one of the gurneys.  
“What’s going on?” Taylor frowned, not moving from where he sat on the bed.  
As usual for the handlers, none of them responded. The two in front came to unlock his door and he stood before they could enter.  
“Where’s Morris?!” his brow furrowed as he backed up against the wall, “what do you want?!”  
They came straight for him and Taylor didn’t know whether to fight or not. None of them looked to be holding a sedative or anything to restrain him with. He held his hands up in defence, but when one of them simply put a hand on his shoulder and indicated the door Taylor decided to go easy.  
Until he saw the medical restraints on the gurney. Then he fought.  
“Just tell me what’s going on!” he planted his feet and wouldn’t move any further, “just say something! Where’s Morris?!”  
When the third man came to help he knew he was outmanned, despite being bigger than all three of them. He fought and wrestled as best he could, but with one at either shoulder and another to grab his legs they had him on the gurney before he could count to ten. The two at his head held him down while his ankles were strapped in.  
“Why do I need to be tied down?!” he was trying to sit up, “what are you going to do?!”  
He froze when he saw the man to his right raise a needle. It was the pause they needed to fasten his wrists. Before he made the connection that they weren’t actually going to sedate him it was already too late.  
The gurney was wheeled backwards through the metal door and Taylor couldn’t see where he was going. The hall they entered was brighter than the cells but there was nothing to otherwise indicate where he was. His heart was racing the entire time as they turned a corner and then turned into a separate room. Taylor saw the medical equipment right away and began to panic again.  
“Please,” he began to beg, clenching his hands into fists, “just let me talk to Morris. I just want to go home!”  
He yelped as he felt the sting in his neck that told him the needle had gone in. He tried to take deep breaths until it was pulled out, and when he opened his eyes again realised the other two handlers had already left the room.  
The one man remaining capped the needle and set it aside before pulling the front of Taylor’s shirt down a little. He attached a couple of monitors to his chest, set some dials on the machine by the bed, and turned to leave the room.


	5. Part Five

Carey arrived home long after Emma had left for work and without bothering to take any more than his shoes off he collapsed onto the bed.  
He just felt like he was succeeding in turning his brain off when his phone rang. He let out an audible grunt before reaching for it with his eyes still closed. Opening them to see that it was Alex calling, he grunted again before answering.  
“Yeah?”  
“How’d it go with Mark?”  
“Long story. I’m tired,” Carey grunted.  
“Okay I’ll be quick… have you heard from Jesse at all?”  
“Jesse? No,” Carey frowned, rubbing his face, “why?”  
“No reason. Get some sleep I’ll talk to you later.”  
“Where is Jesse?” Carey’s frown only deepened, “why would he call?”  
“I don’t know,” Alex admitted, “we uh… we did something, and now I haven’t heard from him and I’m worried.”  
“What did you do?” Carey sat up.  
“We didn’t know where you’d gone, and then I saw you guys at the labs,” Alex rushed to say, “so I gave Jesse the address of one of the guys who took him and Taylor in and he went to his house.”  
Carey closed his eyes again with a groan.  
“He just went to find out why you guys were taken in. I spoke to him after and he’d found out Colin had died.”  
“How long since you’ve heard from him?” Carey rubbed his face.  
“Nearly twenty-four hours now,” Alex admitted.  
“And he’s not at the labs?” Carey guessed.  
“No, he’s…” Alex trailed off, the line going silent.  
Carey frowned.  
“Alex?”  
“Oh, shit.”  
“What is it?!”  
“It’s Taylor,” Alex sounded panicked, “I think he just got attacked. They’ve…”  
He trailed off again, Carey waiting impatiently for him to go on.  
“They put him on a bed and took him out of the cells. I don’t have visual on him anymore.”  
Carey took a deep breath, already debating whether he needed to contact the Hansons or not.  
“They’re probably taking him to where they had Colin,” he said.  
“Why?” Alex’s voice was getting higher, “what are they going to do?! What did they do to Colin?!”  
“It’s a long story, don’t panic,” Carey insisted, “I think they’re just trying to get information out of him at this stage. He’ll be okay.”  
“Colin wasn’t!” he could hear the scowl in Alex’s voice.  
“Well we can’t change that right now,” Carey tried to reason, “give me some time to sleep, hopefully Jesse will call in the meantime, and… I don’t know. I guess we’ll regroup and focus on Taylor. Okay?”  
“Fine,” Alex ended the call.  
Carey winced and set the phone aside, falling back onto the bed again.  
He had no idea how he was supposed to sleep.

Taylor was sweating, and had been for a long time. Every now and then the heart monitor would race but no one came to his aid. Twice he’d already panicked and had to force himself to calm down. But he didn’t feel tired like the sedative should have made him… he felt light-headed and slightly nauseas.  
The lights were glaring so much he eventually had to close his eyes, but he tried to keep them open at a slit just to make sure the room wasn’t spinning. He’d already tried multiple times to pull on the straps holding down his ankles, wrists and torso but he was definitely not going anywhere.  
He began to feel like he was somewhere between the realm of a dream and reality. He might as well have been floating above the bed. At times he felt like the straps were the only things holding him down.  
He didn’t register the room’s door opening when it did, and when Morris appeared at his side he wasn’t entirely sure that it was him. Was he dreaming him? Was it just someone that looked like him?  
“Good morning Mr Hanson,” his voice seemed far away, like an echo.  
“Hi,” he whispered in return, not able to raise his voice.  
A light was shone in his eyes as Morris checked his pupil dilation, but Taylor couldn’t even turn his head away. He also didn’t feel the need.  
“I trust you’re feeling a little better this morning,” he heard Morris say as he moved beside him.  
“Sure,” Taylor whispered, feeling as calm as he could remember in a long time.  
“Great. I’d like to ask you some questions.”  
Taylor’s head rolled to the right where he could just make out Morris’ form without having to fully open his eyes. The lights were still too bright and he already just wanted to sleep.  
“But just to be sure we’re on the same page… can you tell me your name?”  
“My name is Taylor,” he replied, already confused at why he’d ask but still not entirely sure that it was Morris either.  
“Good. Taylor, where in Tulsa do your parents live?”  
Taylor closed his eyes finding it hard to think straight.  
“They live in our old house,” he whispered, “where I grew up.”  
“You’re doing great. What’s your father’s name, Taylor?”  
“Walker.”  
“What’s his real name, Taylor?”  
Taylor paused, breathing evenly.  
“Clarke Walker,” he amended with a little difficulty.  
“Okay…” Morris murmured to himself, followed by the sound of papers rustling, “has he ever talked to you about working in a laboratory?”  
“Yes,” Taylor whispered.  
“Has your mother ever talked to you about working in a laboratory?”  
“Yes.”  
“What did they say about working in the laboratory?”  
Taylor blinked slowly, confused as to why his vision wasn’t clearing. It only seemed to be getting more hazy. He could barely make out that Morris was bald anymore. But maybe he did have hair, if only a little bit.  
“Taylor?”  
“Hm?”   
“What did your parents tell you about their work in the laboratory?”  
“They rescued the babies,” his voice broke with the effort to get it out.  
“What babies were those?”  
Taylor frowned as he tried to think.  
“The babies that are all the same.”

Carey’s eyes shot open when he heard the front door open. He shot up on the bed and leant to the side a little so he could see into a mirror that it was Emma coming home, before sighing with relief and falling back again.  
“Care?!” she called out.  
“Yeah!” he responded, attempting to rub the sleep from his eyes.  
She finished what she was doing in the main room before coming to the bedroom door.  
“How did it go with Mark?” she asked, removing her scarf.  
“I think he’s scared,” he admitted, “but we all are.”  
She paused for a moment before removing her jacket.  
“But I think they have what they want now,” he lowered his arm to stare at the ceiling.  
“What’s that?” she put the jacket over a chair.  
“Taylor,” he replied, “looks like his brother is Baby Zero… which means his parents are the ones that saved us.”  
Emma smirked a little but managed to not let him hear.   
“So are you going to get him out like you did for Colin?” she asked.  
“Nope.”  
“What?” she looked up, “you’re kidding right?”  
“They’ll be expecting us to try again,” Carey reasoned, “they’ll be ready for us this time. We won’t be able to pull it off. But maybe it’s better this way. Maybe they’ll leave the rest of us alone now.”  
“You really believe that?” Emma scoffed, “you know once they’re done with him they’ll come for the rest of you.”  
“They have no reason to,” Carey looked up with a frown, “they found their ‘bad guys’.”  
“And you think your birth mother had nothing to do with it?”  
“We couldn’t find her,” Carey covered his eyes again, “Mark and I are a dead end. They know that, they know that they won’t get any more from us.”  
“Are you sure?”  
Carey paused to take a deep breath.  
“No,” he admitted, “but we can’t exactly fight these people either. They’re far too organised.”  
“So you’re just going to leave him there,” Emma shrugged incredulously, “when you rescued _Colin_ of all people. When his parents saved your life. Not only your life, but everyone else’s.”  
“It’s not like that,” Carey scorned.  
“Then what is it like?” her brow rose, “because it sounds pretty simple to me. You’d rather rescue Colin than Taylor because of your stupid personal vendetta against him.”  
“That’s not it!” Carey finally sat up, “this is _dangerous_ Em! We shouldn’t have gone in the first time!”  
“But you did,” she hit back, “and you had Alex holding your hand the entire way. Not to mention that it wasn’t actually your hand to begin with – it was Mark’s.”  
“Mark won’t go after Taylor,” Carey shook his head.  
“So why don’t you?”  
Carey scoffed and diverted his eyes.  
“I know you’re not just being an asshole,” she took a seat on the end of the bed, “you’re scared, aren’t you?”  
“Of course I’m scared,” he admitted flatly, “I just said that.”  
“Scared of what?”  
Carey gave her an incredulous look.  
“Are you kidding?” his brow furrowed, “I’m scared they’re going to lock me up and throw away the key. I’m scared they’re going to kill us. I’m scared they’re going to use us like lab rats and do experiments on us, all of which they’re perfectly capable of doing.”  
He stopped to bite his lip.  
“I’m scared of losing this,” he admitted, “I’m scared of losing us.”  
“You weren’t last time,” Emma said softly, “so what changed?”  
“Colin did,” he suddenly couldn’t look her in the eye, “whatever he went through in there… it killed him. I can’t let that happen to me or Mark.”  
Emma stood from the end of the bed and made her way around to his side. He took a deep breath as she sat beside him and snaked her arms around his shoulders.  
“Let’s just leave,” he said suddenly.  
“What?” she frowned.  
“Let’s go somewhere exotic. I know you’ve always wanted to go to Hawaii. We could elope! We could get _married_ in Hawaii!”  
“What, and miss seeing Mark in a tux?” Emma smirked.  
“You are aware we’re identical twins, right?” Carey turned to look at her.  
“Clones, actually. I got it,” she mused.  
“But I’m serious,” he insisted, “we could conquer the world together. We just need to leave.”  
“But you don’t even like planes,” her brow furrowed.  
“I’d brave them for you,” he insisted wholeheartedly.  
“Where is this coming from?” she shook her head, “you know I barely make enough money to cover rent and food since you lost your job. It’s a nice dream, but we can’t realistically afford anything like this.”  
“Yeah…” Carey diverted his eyes, “about that.”  
Emma let go of him and sat back a little.  
“You haven’t had time to get a job,” her eyes narrowed.  
“No, I haven’t,” he agreed, “and I’m just going to get this out quickly because I know you’re not going to like it but… before Colin died he transferred the money he had left in his main account to myself, Mark, Taylor and Alex. We got a million dollars each. Emma, we’re millionaires.”  
Emma took a moment to digest it, her frown only getting deeper. She stood from the bed.  
“It’s our money, we can do anything with it,” Carey insisted, “we can set ourselves up with a good house, we can have as big of a wedding as you want – anywhere you want. You won’t have to work for-“  
“From _Colin_?” her tone was dark as she turned back to him, “of all people?!”  
“You have to admit,” he tried to reason, “it’s kind of a ‘fuck you’ that he gave the money to me and you’ll get to enjoy it.”  
She just glared at him before diverting her eyes.  
“You have a message on your phone,” she turned to leave the room, “I’ll start dinner.”  
Carey groaned internally before seeing that she was right. His phone hadn’t woken him up. As he quickly checked it he saw he had a missed call from Mark.  
“ _Hey Care. Uh… I’m leaving for Chicago. Don’t know when I’ll be back. Bye._ ”  
Carey frowned as he ended the call, taking a moment to realise what he’d said.  
“Oh for fuck’s sake.”


	6. Part Six

“You’re doing really well,” Morris assured, though Taylor was down to only making out every few words, “we’re almost done, and then we can get you cleaned up.”  
“Okay.”  
He didn’t like the sound of that. He didn’t want to move at all. He just wanted to sleep.  
“Where do your other siblings currently live?”  
“What other siblings?” Taylor frowned, closing his eyes.  
“I believe their names are Avery Laurel and Joshua Mackenzie.”  
“Mac…”  
“Where does Mackenzie live, Taylor?”  
“LA,” he frowned.  
“Has he had any contact with the Miller twins?”  
“He doesn’t know.”  
“Where does Avery live, Taylor?”  
“She doesn’t know either,” he groaned a little, “I want to sleep now.”  
“We’re not quite there yet I’m afraid. I’ll have our friends get you showered and changed as quickly as possible,” Morris assured, standing from where he’d been sitting, “then you can get some sleep.”  
Taylor kept his eyes closed, listening as the door opened and closed a few times. He felt the bed start to move from under him and frowned as he began to feel vertigo.  
The next thing he registered was his wrists being unstrapped. He was sat up on the bed and helped to slide off, glad for the hands holding him up by the shoulders because he doubted his ability to hold his own weight.  
He forced his eyes open to a squint so that he could see where he was going, but all he saw was glaring white.  
Someone held him up as they began to strip him down, and he jolted a little when he felt water hit his back. He stood with his arms folded and his eyes closed just trying to stay vertical as he felt them scrubbing him over.  
He wasn’t aware of it until after it happened, but he vomited at least once. He heard an older woman’s voice insisting that it had been the right place to do it and not to worry. Before he knew it he was being dried off and clothed again.  
He felt the edge of the bed with his hands, wanting more than anything to be on it and asleep, but wondering how he’d possibly get onto it without help. They lifted him onto it in a similar way to what they had earlier, this time without his fighting back. He felt himself being taken back to the room before they bothered to strap him in again.  
Morris appeared soon after, and Taylor couldn’t tell if he was moving or if there were multiple doctors at this point.  
“Now let’s get you some sleep. You’d like that, wouldn’t you Taylor?”  
“Yes,” he whispered, glad to know the dizziness would soon end.  
“This is the one born March 14th?” he heard another voice in the distance.  
“He sure is,” Morris replied, fixing what looked like some kind of tubing.  
Taylor felt a sting in his arm as the IV went in and turned his head slightly toward it.  
“This will make sure you get all the rest you need,” Morris insisted, giving him a pat on the arm.  
“Thanks.”  
His eyes finally slid closed.  
“How long are you keeping him under?”  
“Until we need some more questions answered. For now what we have will suffice.”  
“I want a team in Tulsa by tonight, and I want them brought in alive. All three.”  
“It will be done.”

Alex groaned when his computer beeped. He wasn’t ready to deal with this.  
He debated whether to pause the Modern Warfare 2 scene but realised it was already too late. The roller door had come down and the game was back in play. He glared at the screen as he realised he’d missed the two seconds the last forty minutes had been building to before finally pausing the game.  
He dropped his headset beside the keyboard and pulled his chair over to the monitor in question. He did a double take as he wasn’t sure he was actually seeing what he was seeing, but leant over to grab the headset again before quickly dialling a number.  
“Yello…?”  
“Jesse what are you doing?” Alex frowned, getting to his feet, “why are you in New Mexico?!”  
“Hey Al, I was hoping you’d find me.”  
“Why are you in New Mexico?!”  
“I’m nearly in Arizona now.”  
“Why are you in Arizona?!”  
“I’m on my way to Nevada.”  
Alex opened his mouth to ask why he was going to Nevada, before closing it and frowning again.  
“You’re going after Taylor?” he put together.  
“Something tells me the Miller brothers won’t do it,” Jesse replied, “anyway I need you to run a bit of recon for me.”  
“What do you need?” was Alex’s immediate response before shaking his head, “wait, you can’t do this alone! What if something goes wrong?”  
“What like Mark will be better at this than me?”  
“They’ll be watching for an escape attempt with him after what happened with Colin,” Alex warned, “we can’t just sneak in the back door and expect it to not be alarmed this time.”  
“I didn’t intend to use the back door.”  
Alex froze, his eyes going to the screen that showed outdoor surveillance on the labs.  
“Jesse…” he began cautiously, “what are you doing? You need to tell me your plan so I can help you.”  
“I don’t need to do anything, but I want to,” Jesse corrected, “I was hoping you might disable their surveillance for me when I get there. That’s all.”  
“What else?” Alex frowned.  
“Nothing. That’s all I need.”  
Alex rubbed his face, feeling his heart start to race.  
“How can that be all you need?” he shook his head, “I had to talk Mark through the whole thing. You don’t even know where he is. It’s a huge base.”  
“I’ll ask. Contrary to popular belief, as a male, I do know how to ask for directions.”  
“Oh man,” Alex hung his head, “who are you possibly going to ask that isn’t going to shoot you on sight?”  
“I’m good at making friends, don’t worry. I’ll call you on this number when I get there.”  
Alex fell back into his seat as the call ended.  
“This idiot’s going to get himself killed,” he muttered to himself, before kicking out to push his chair back toward the gaming console.

Mark ignored the looks he got from passers-by as he pulled his car into a spot just in front of the building on East Monroe Street. He didn’t bother to set the alarm, almost hoping it would get stolen. There was a definitive mix of upper class and lower class in the area and he almost felt like he was back in LA for a moment.  
Except that it was a whole lot colder.  
He made his way into the building as he tried to remember Colin’s instructions. He knew he had to find the locker on the second floor before he could go up to the 70th but was already struggling to remember the combination. Regardless, he headed straight for the elevator.  
“Mr Reis,” the doorman greeted with a raised brow, “would you… like me to have that towed for you?”  
Mark looked over his shoulder, seeing that he was indicating the car.  
“No,” he scowled as he turned back, the doorman doing a sudden double take.  
“Mr Reis what happened to your face?!”  
“Oh,” Mark smirked as he stepped into the elevator, “it’s make up for an acting role I got. Pretty cool, huh?”  
He grinned as the doors finally closed on the confused man before rolling his eyes to himself.  
He found the locker somewhat easily and managed to remember the combination on the second try. He found both the room key and the stack of money Taylor had hidden which he quickly shoved into his jacket pocket before closing the locker and heading back for the elevator.  
He had to pause when he stepped out into the apartment. The amount of sunlight alone took him by surprise, followed by the vast amount of gold furnishings.  
“It’s always the assholes,” he muttered to himself before starting to walk around.  
He made his way through the kitchen and what appeared to be a large dining area that opened into a living area before finding the first bedroom. Figuring it wasn’t big enough to be considered the master, he kept walking. He knew the master the moment he saw it and paused in the doorway to take in the room.  
He couldn’t deny that it felt odd to be in the home of someone that he’d only vaguely known but who was no longer ‘here’.  
His eyes fell on the wedding photo Taylor had spotted and he went to pick it up. There was no question that it was Colin. Mark focused on the woman in the photo and he couldn’t help but feel pity for her. He didn’t know what had become of her after Colin’s death, but it didn’t look as though she’d been home since.  
Setting the photo down he went to open the curtains. The view definitely impressed him, though he wasn’t going to dwell on it. He decided to use the light to check the room out further.  
He spent a long time going through Colin’s personal effects and wardrobe, pulling a face at most of his clothing choices. He found a lot more hidden cash in some random places, and spent time going through business documents in the hope of finding something he could use.  
He was there until well after sundown, and when his eyes started swimming he simply collapsed onto the king-sized bed.

“Hey, Jesse?”  
“Hey,” Jesse checked the rear-view mirror as he drove, “just checking in to see that everything’s going okay.”  
“Depends on your definition of ‘okay’,” Zac smirked, “but our parents have left Tulsa and I think Ike’s leaving tonight. We’re doing some last minute packing and we’ll follow in the morning.”  
“What about Tay’s lot?” Jesse frowned.  
“I believe Nat left with anything she could carry first thing this morning. I’m sorry I don’t know where she is.”  
“That’s okay, it’s better that I don’t know,” Jesse insisted, “I’m just heading in to Nevada now.”  
“Nevada?”  
“It’s where the lab is located. We were taken there when we were abducted.”  
“I don’t know what you’re doing, but… thank you.”  
“When it’s over I’ll call this number,” he promised.  
“And I’ll update you,” Zac promised in return, “when do you think it’ll be?”  
“Not sure but hopefully tomorrow.”  
“Okay. Guess I’ll talk to you then.”  
“Are the kids okay?” Jesse felt the need to ask.  
“They’re fine,” Zac assured, “though I’m not sure how much they’ve been told. Mine just think we’re going on a last minute camping trip.”  
“Probably for the best, or there’s going to be some hard questions to answer.”  
“Exactly.”  
Jesse glanced at the clock.  
“I’d better let you go. Good luck.”  
“Thanks Jesse. Hope I get to meet you someday.”  
“Me too,” Jesse smirked before ending the call.


	7. Part Seven

Taylor jolted awake, gasping for breath.  
The strap around his torso stopped him from sitting up, and a hand to his forehead pushed him back onto the pillow. He looked up to see Morris looking down on him before he shone a light in his eye to check on his pupils.  
“Good evening Taylor,” he greeted under his breath, “we just have a few more questions for you and then you can sleep for as long as you want.”  
“What are you doing to me?” Taylor’s voice shook, feeling shivers run up and down his body.  
“We’ll just wait for your heart rate to stabilise before we continue,” Morris assured, leaning back a little.  
Taylor’s eyes darted around the room but Morris was the only one there. He could see a security guard through the window in the door but he wasn’t paying attention.  
He pulled against his wrist and ankle restraints but still couldn’t move them.  
“Oh God,” he breathed, closing his eyes as his memory started to come back, “oh God, what have I done?”  
“You’ve been doing very well,” Morris insisted, focusing more on his paperwork again, “there’s no need to change that now.”  
“What did you do to me?” Taylor’s brow furrowed in worry, “I couldn’t stop, I couldn’t… I couldn’t help myself. I didn’t know what I was saying.”  
“I hope for your sake that you did,” Morris considered, “but we have already confirmed plenty of it.”  
“Please don’t hurt my kids,” Taylor begged, struggling to keep himself together at the thought that they might, “they don’t deserve any of this.”  
“And what did you do to deserve this? I can assure you we don’t plan to hurt them,” Morris relented and gave him some eye contact, “we merely want to learn how they came to be. None of the embryos we manufactured should have been able to reproduce. We want to work out why you’ve defied that biological trait.”  
Taylor didn’t know what to say to that. He wasn’t sure what they wanted from him, other than to find his family and possibly bring them in.  
He couldn’t take the thought of any of his kids in this situation.  
“Of course we may need to do some tests on your birth mother to be sure of that,” Morris considered, “to see if the natural healing tendency of her womb had anything to do with it. That, coupled with her being your biological mother also. Comparison with your original would greatly help the effort as well.”  
“What does it matter?” Taylor frowned, “the experiment was stopped. Why is this even an issue?”  
“Every anomaly is of interest to the scientific mind,” Morris looked up to check on the monitor before getting to his feet, “and you’ll be pleased to hear we have a new study to focus on, now that the six of you have been found.”  
Taylor gulped at that, keeping his eyes to Morris as he adjusted the monitor settings.  
“I like to call it making the best of a situation,” he smiled as he turned back, while pulling a new syringe from his coat pocket.  
“What is that?” Taylor’s eyes immediately went to it, reactively trying to pull his arm away as Morris lifted the IV line to insert it.  
“Just something to make you a little more… pliant,” the doctor said casually as it was injected, “I find it works better if I don’t tell you exactly what it is.”  
Taylor felt the nausea hit him even before the needle had emptied. He turned his eyes back to the ceiling knowing very well that what had happened to him before was about to happen again.  
“You already have everything you could possibly need from me,” his voice broke, “why do we have to go through this again?”  
“I don’t,” Morris corrected, “but we’ll save that for…”  
He pulled up his sleeve to check his watch.  
“…Another fifteen minutes or so. Just relax until then.”  
Taylor grunted incredulously at that before closing his eyes. He could already feel the dizziness seeping in.   
Morris stayed by his bedside keeping an eye on the monitor. Taylor tried not to draw attention as he fiddled with the strapping on his right wrist, but he soon had to stop as he began to lose concentration. The lights began to glare and the sounds once again became distant.  
“How many fingers am I holding up?” he heard the doctor’s voice, making him look to the right again.  
“Two,” he responded in a soft tone.  
“We’re nearly there,” Morris assured, “not long now.”  
“For what?” Taylor sounded out of breath, but was purely struggling to find his voice.  
“Just a few more questions,” Morris assured, “and then you can rest.”  
“I want to rest,” Taylor confirmed in a whisper.  
“You may, very soon. First I’d like you to tell me where your parents have gone.”  
“Gone where?” Taylor frowned.  
“That’s what we’d like to know,” Morris sounded amused, “if your parents were told to leave Tulsa, where would they have gone?”  
“I don’t know,” Taylor closed his eyes again.  
“Would they have gone to stay with your brother or sister?” Morris suggested, “do you have other family outside Oklahoma?”  
“I don’t think so.”  
“Try and think of some places they might go. Where do they go on holidays? Where would they go for a weekend away? Does your father have business elsewhere?”  
“No,” Taylor whispered, “I can’t think.”  
“What about… your elder brother Clarke. Where would he go?”  
Taylor frowned with a grunt.  
“Maybe Chicago,” he relented, “his wife has family there.”  
“Thank you Taylor. Where would your parents go?”  
Taylor took deep breaths, his mind struggling to think.  
“Where are your parents, Taylor?”  
“I don’t know,” he started to show emotion in his voice.  
He didn’t know where his parents were, but he really wanted them there right now.  
“You’re doing fine,” Morris assured, “but we need a little more information. Where is your wife?”  
“Home,” he croaked out, “she’s home.”  
“I’m afraid she isn’t,” Morris corrected, “now where would she have gone? Where has she taken the children?”  
Taylor gulped, again struggling to make sense of the question.  
“Where is she?” he whispered.  
“That’s what we’d like to know,” the doctor’s voice was steady, “where is Natalie, Taylor?”  
“I don’t know,” he repeated, visibly getting upset again, “I don’t know where they are. Please find them.”

“What are you doing?” Carey demanded.  
“Care you should see this place,” Mark smirked to himself, “we should move here, with Emma and Dad.”  
“I don’t think that’s gonna happen,” Carey scorned, “but why are _you_ there, more importantly? What are you looking for?”  
“I wasn’t looking for anything,” Mark insisted, “but you should see this guy’s porn stash. It’s worse than yours from college.”  
Carey rolled his eyes.  
“How did you even find it?” he pulled a face, “going through his underwear or something?”  
“Actually yes, I’m going through everything,” made Carey roll his eyes, “but he uh… he hid it where I would have hidden it. Which is weird.”  
“You often imagine yourself in a high rise having to hide porn?”  
“Fuck you, you know what I mean.”  
“Look, I need you to come home,” Carey rubbed his face, “we’ve got some things we need to talk over.”  
“Like what?” Mark frowned.  
“I don’t want to do it over the phone.”  
“Well… tough,” Mark shrugged, “I’m not coming back just because you tell me to. The days of you bossing me around are well and truly over.”  
“What makes you say that?” Carey’s eyes narrowed, “you think because you have money now you can do whatever you want? That’s not how the world works. You’ll be surprised how fast that account goes down.”  
“Yeah, yeah,” Mark rolled his eyes.  
Carey sighed and ran his fingers through his hair.  
“We need to talk about Taylor,” he said.  
“What about him?”  
“Em… kind of made a big deal about how we decided to go after Colin but we haven’t really thought about going after him.”  
“Care that was a one-time thing, you know they’ll be waiting for us next time,” Mark insisted, “and besides, I still have this thing in my neck.”  
“I know. But his parents are technically the ones that saved us. Emma thinks we owe them.”  
Mark groaned, leaning his head back in frustration.  
“And I’ve thought it over and she has a point.”  
“So you want me to break in again,” Mark concluded.  
“I want to be smart about it,” Carey insisted, “we’ll definitely need Alex.”  
“And we’ll need to get this thing out of my neck.”  
“Yeah,” Carey bit his lip, already worried about what could go wrong with that.  
“Can I at least have a few days?”  
“I don’t know that we have a few days,” Carey was cautious.  
“What do you mean?”  
“Well we know they were drilling Colin, and look what happened. If they’re going to do the same thing to Taylor…”  
“We should probably look at warning the family first. Get them out of Tulsa.”  
“Right, I might get Alex on that. I only had Taylor’s details,” Carey admitted.  
“Call me,” Mark said before hanging up.  
Carey grunted as the call ended, already trying to work himself up to making this phone call. But he looked for Alex’s number and dialled before he could chicken out.  
“Carey?”  
“Hey…” he was rubbing his lap awkwardly, “you got a second?”  
“…Sure.”  
“I’ve been thinking, and I’ve talked to Mark… we’re thinking of going after Taylor after all.”  
“Oh.”  
“What ‘oh’?” Carey frowned.  
“Er… Jesse’s kind’ve already on it.”  
“What?”  
“Yeah he should already be in Nevada…”  
“Are you kidding? He knows they’re tracking him, right?!”  
“I would assume he does but he doesn’t seem to care,” Alex admitted, “I tried to talk him out of it but he insisted.”  
“What is he doing? What’s his actual plan?”  
“I don’t know! He wouldn’t tell me! I’m just waiting for him to call because he said he wanted me to do something but didn’t say what.”  
Carey rubbed at his face tiredly, barely believing the shit storm they were already in.  
“Okay well… provided he fails, which he probably will, we’re officially the backup,” he relented, “the other thing was we wanted to warn his family because they’ll probably go after them-“  
“Already done. Jesse did it,” Alex cut in.  
“What is going on with you two?!”  
“It’s not me I swear, this is all Jesse!” Alex defended, “I’m just on the other end of the phone!”  
“He’s going to get himself killed!”  
“That’s what I said!”  
They both paused to take a breath, Carey shaking his head incredulously.  
“Have you tried calling him?” he asked.  
“I have. Many times. He’s turning his phone off.”  
“Have you called his wife?”  
“I can’t contact her. I don’t know what’s going on with her cell either.”  
“What the fuck?”  
“I know. What’s Mark doing? Is he okay?”  
“Depends on your definition of okay,” Carey shook his head, “he’s at Colin’s place in Chicago right now doing God knows what.”  
“…Okay?”  
“He wouldn’t say why. Hopefully it isn’t a guilt thing over Colin,” Carey’s worry came through his voice, “but I’m trying to convince him to get back to LA so we could go after Taylor.”  
“If this goes wrong for Jesse you might need to anyway,” Alex considered.  
“That’s what I’m thinking now. We can’t have them picking us off one by one.”  
“Despite the fact that they might anyway?” Alex murmured, taking a moment to realise he’d said it out loud.  
There was an awkward pause.   
“Want me to call you when I hear from him?” Alex suggested.  
“Yeah, sure,” Carey snapped back to reality, “keep me updated once you know what he’s doing.”  
“Hopefully I find out what he’s doing,” Alex muttered to himself.


	8. Part Eight

Jesse sat in the truck with his eye on the horizon. He’d been fastening some gloves but had paused to wonder why he’d bothered. It wasn’t as if they didn’t already have his prints.  
He removed his cap and shook out his hair before taking his cell phone from the seat and dialling for Alex.  
“I’m here,” was his answer, “look, I’ve been talking to Carey-“  
“Be ready to disable their security in ten minutes,” Jesse ordered.  
“We think you should wait,” Alex went on, “Mark’s in Chicago and when he gets back the three of you can work something out.”  
“But I’m here now,” Jesse frowned, “and I’m ready to go. So just turn their cameras off and I’ll get it done.”  
“I don’t want to,” Alex found it hard to say, “I don’t want you getting hurt.”  
Jesse sighed, rolling his eyes.  
“I’d be a lot more comfortable with this situation if you’d just let the Millers handle it.”  
“I’d be a lot more comfortable if you’d just do as I ask,” Jesse insisted, “because whether you’re ‘comfortable’ or not, I’m going in. Whether you do as I ask or not, I’m going in. This will be a lot harder to pull off if you _don’t_ do as I ask. So please…”  
He paused for effect.  
“…Just disable their damn security and wait for my call.”  
Alex grit his teeth, knowing he’d already lost the argument. If Jesse had decided he was going in either way there was no way to stop him. He didn’t want to be responsible for him being caught on their CCTV, despite his likelihood of being caught another way.  
“Please be careful,” he begged, “I won’t be able to watch you.”  
“I know, and I will,” Jesse promised, “but you’re probably not going to want to see this one.”  
Alex paused at that, biting his lip. Then he reached over to a keyboard and quickly set a timer.  
“Radio will be down in 9:58, cameras will follow a few seconds later.”  
Jesse checked his watch, quickly setting the timer to match.  
“Thanks Alex,” he quickly ended the call.  
Alex hung his head as he leant against the desk, wondering how he was going to tell Carey. Jesse meanwhile got out of the truck, reaching behind the seat to retrieve his rifle.

“Yes? Alex?”  
“Jesse called,” he was rubbing his face, “he’s going inside in about five minutes.”  
“What?” Carey frowned, “what did you say to him?”  
“I told him to wait, and that you and Mark could help. But he insisted, and said he was going in even without my help. So… I helped.”  
Carey groaned.  
“I didn’t know what to do! He said he’s going to call when he’s done.”  
“If he gets out,” Carey sounded tired, “okay, I give up. Let him do his thing. If he gets caught, it’s on him – not you, okay?”  
“Yeah I know,” Alex confirmed, still not feeling great about it.  
“If you haven’t heard from him in two hours let me know.”  
“This two hours is going to suck.”  
Carey smirked before ending the call. Alex took a seat behind the monitors, watching the timer count down on a screen to the left.  
“Come on Jesse,” he softly willed him to pull off a miracle.

Taylor jolted awake yet again, feeling like he was coming up for air. The lights were still blinding and he had trouble catching his breath.  
The next thing he registered was that he could sit up.  
His eyes shot to the right, not seeing anything. When he looked to the left he jumped. He wasn’t sure at first as he waited for his eyes to clear, but he soon confirmed that it wasn’t Dr Morris.  
“Who are you?” he gasped out, pulling against his right wrist restraint.  
“Jesse,” he replied, staring back, “just try and wake yourself up. I’ll get you out of here.”  
Taylor fell back onto the bed at that, trying to control his racing heart.  
“Where’s Morris?” was his first question.  
“Not here,” Jesse promised, fixing the tubing and setting it aside, “I made sure. Sit up when you can.”  
“How are we getting out?” Taylor forced himself up, having to pause for vertigo once he was there.  
“We are going to walk through the front door,” Jesse worked to undo the straps on his wrists, “and no one is going to stop us.”  
“How?” Taylor squinted across at him, “how is that possible?”  
“The less questions right now the better,” Jesse insisted, “let’s just get out while we can.”  
Taylor went to rub his face for the first time, pausing when he saw red on his left wrist. He realised with a gulp that Jesse must have cut out the chip already.  
Once his ankles were freed he turned himself on the bed, falling forward into Jesse’s arms when he lost his balance. Turning him so he could lean against the bed, Jesse cast his eye toward the door.  
Taylor took a few deep breaths as he tried to right himself before making sure he could stand on his own.  
“Okay,” he gave Jesse a nod, who led the way to the door.  
He waited for Taylor to join him in case he needed help and Taylor was surprised to enter an empty hallway.  
“Where is everyone?” he winced, using his left hand to balance against the wall.  
“I’m not sure,” Jesse shrugged innocently, “let’s just move it.”  
Taylor was confused, but he wasn’t entirely sure the drugs had left his system yet. He let it go. He let Jesse lead him through the seemingly empty building before coming to what looked like a main foyer. Taylor’s breath caught in his throat and he stopped in his tracks when he sighted blood smeared across one of the walls complete with a definitive hand print.  
“What is that?!” he demanded, pointing toward it.  
“It’s nothing, let’s go!” Jesse insisted.  
“No!” Taylor stopped him, having to lean against another wall, “Jesse, what did you do?!”  
“I did what I had to, to prove a point,” Jesse looked him in the eye, “I bought us a window, and if you ever want to see your family again you will dive through that window _right now_.”  
“My family,” Taylor’s attention was immediately diverted, “Jesse they want my kids.”  
“They’re safe,” Jesse insisted, a hand out to pacify him, “they’ve all left Tulsa. I don’t know where but I’m in contact with Zac. I just need to get you out and I can take you to them.”  
Taylor looked back over his shoulder and again to the bloodstain, flinching when Jesse hit him on the arm.  
“Come on,” he nodded toward the way out.  
This time Taylor followed. He didn’t know what had happened here, but he knew he wanted out.  
There was more blood on the ground outside the building but Taylor thought it best to just not ask. Jesse ignored it as he led the way back to the truck and indicated for Taylor to get in.  
Once they were both settled he started the truck and set his cell phone into the car kit. Taylor watched him struggling to dial as he hugged himself in the passenger seat, hoping this ride wasn’t going to make him sicker. The dial tone eventually came through the speakers and Jesse pulled out onto the road. It only rang once.  
“Jesse?!” Alex’s voice came through like stress personified, “what happened? Are you okay?!”  
“We’re both okay,” Jesse confirmed, “Taylor’s here.”  
“Hey Alex,” Taylor forced himself to speak aloud, though it was hard.  
“Oh thank God,” they heard him mutter, making Jesse smile a little, “where are you going?”  
“Well first we’re going to get the hell out of Nevada,” Jesse assured, “then the plan is to contact the Hansons and find out where they’ve gone. Hopefully they haven’t scattered.”  
“They are not going to be happy about this,” Alex insisted, “the doctors I mean. When Mark got Colin out they converged on you guys within a day.”  
“We weren’t careful enough,” Taylor reasoned, “we have to be careful this time. I need to… I need to disappear, like Colin couldn’t.”  
Jesse shot him a somewhat nervous glance, knowing he hadn’t really come to terms with what he was saying yet.  
“Do you have a plan?” Alex asked.  
“No,” Taylor admitted, “but it sounds like my family might.”  
“Like I said, we’ll need to find out what they’re doing first,” Jesse agreed, “tell Carey to call off the cavalry. We’ll give you an update when we know what we’re doing.”  
“Thank you. Thanks Jesse.”  
He leant forward in his seat to disconnect the call, swerving a little as his eyes returned to the road.  
“Are you sure they’re okay?” Taylor had to ask, slowly becoming more and more alert.  
“I spoke to Zac two days ago. Natalie and your parents all left Tulsa right away and he and Ike were following close behind. I didn’t ask where they were going in case this venture didn’t go my way.”  
“Thank you,” Taylor gave him a glance, “you’ve thought of everything.”  
“I should hope so,” Jesse said under his breath, “there’s water in the glove compartment if you need it, we’ll stop for food in a couple hours.”  
Taylor immediately reached for it, his throat well and truly dried out. He remembered meaning to ask Morris for water and never getting a chance to.  
Jesse watched him move, wondering if he should ask anything or not. If Taylor had been through anything like Colin had he knew he probably wouldn’t want to talk about it. But maybe – for his sanity – he’d have to.  
“Anything you want to talk about?” he offered once Taylor had finished his water.  
“I don’t think there’s anything to talk about,” he shook his head, unsure of how much Jesse even knew at this point.  
“I’m just sayin’… we don’t really want you goin' off the deep end like Colin did is all.”  
“I don’t think I will,” Taylor shook his head, “as long as my kids are safe, that’s all I want.”  
“Why do they want your kids?” Jesse frowned, “just because they’re yours?”  
Taylor closed his eyes at that, not wanting to be the one to tell him but also starting to feel sick from the movement of the truck. He opened them to focus on the road as he tried to think of what to say.  
“Tay?” Jesse was worried he might throw up instead.  
“Morris said we were never meant to reproduce,” he came out with, “whatever they did to us, before we were born… we weren’t supposed to be able to have kids. Jesse I’m sorry.”  
Jesse felt a chill run down his spine and he struggled to maintain focus on the road.  
“I know you and your wife have been trying a long time and I don’t know what you’ve been through-“  
“We knew it was me,” Jesse nodded to confirm though his voice had lowered, “we went for tests, and they knew it was me.”  
“I’m sorry,” Taylor’s brow furrowed, “I don’t know why I’m different, but that’s what Morris wants to find out. They want to do tests on my kids, on my Mom… and on Ike. To see what went wrong.”  
“Then we can’t let them find your kids.”  
Taylor looked across at him worriedly, having expected more of a reaction.  
“Thank you,” he said instead, “I know this has got to be hard.”  
“No harder than giving up the first time,” Jesse offered him a misplaced smile, “but you know, in a way your kids are kind of related to us, so… let’s look after them first. Maybe they weren’t meant to be, maybe God had other plans. Either way they’re here now and we need to make sure nothing jeopardises that.”  
Taylor smiled a little himself, feeling oddly reassured by that.  
“I hope you get to meet them,” he looked across at him.  
Jesse shot him a glance, unable to stop his face going a little red.  
“Me too,” he admitted.


	9. Part Nine

“Where are you?” Taylor leant forward to ask.  
“We headed for Atlanta but we stopped just short of Birmingham,” Zac’s voice came through the kit, “Ike headed north toward Chicago.”  
“No, no he can’t go to Chicago!” Taylor’s voice rose with panic, “I told them he might go there!”  
“He didn’t make it, he said they stopped in Springfield,” Zac assured, “I’m not sure which one but I called him this morning and they were okay.”  
“You guys might be better off leaving the country altogether,” Jesse reasoned, locking eyes with Taylor.  
“A good idea in theory but we have a small problem,” Zac interrupted.  
“What’s that?” Taylor frowned, having jumped at the idea.  
“Lucy doesn’t have a passport, and now we can’t go back to Tulsa to wait for one.”  
“Shit.”  
“You can’t get someone to send it on?” Jesse suggested.  
“Maybe, but we’d have to go through the whole process of applying and I don’t know that we have that kind of time.”  
“No, no I agree,” Taylor assured, “we need to think of something else.”  
“Don’t let us stop you though,” Zac insisted, “if you and Ike want to leave, just go. Mom and Dad have already taken Zoe down toward the border and I think they’re flying out of El Paso tomorrow.”  
“I hope they make it,” Taylor looked to the sky.  
“They said they were going to keep radio silence until they left but I might get Ike to let them know you’re okay. This whole thing is kinda weird… and sudden.”  
“Yeah I know, I’m sorry,” Taylor frowned.  
“It’s not your fault,” Jesse insisted, “if anything it’s Carey’s for not warning you.”  
“Actually I’m gonna make our parents take this one,” Zac insisted, “there’s a whole lot of shit they’re still not telling us and you have no idea how frustrated I am about that.”  
“I could venture a guess,” Taylor reasoned, “are Kate and the kids okay?”  
“They’re fine. It’s an adventure for the kids,” Zac mused, “yours I’m not so sure. You’ll have to talk to Nat.”  
“I plan to as soon as I can,” Taylor insisted, “thanks for the number.”  
“Give me a call if you come up with anything,” Jesse cut in, “I’ll pass it on.”  
“Of course. Thanks again Jesse.”  
“Take care Zac,” Taylor put in before the call ended.  
“Ready for this?” Jesse checked before putting Natalie’s number in.  
He waited for Taylor’s nod before dialling.  
“We can head straight there, right?” Taylor checked as it rang, “wherever she is?”  
“I promise I have nothing better to do with my time,” Jesse assured.

“Jesse says to call off the cavalry.”  
“You’re kidding,” Carey paced the kitchen, “he made it?!”  
“He made it. Taylor’s out.”  
“How?!”  
“I don’t know,” Alex was biting at his nails, “and I don’t want to turn the cameras on again in case I find out.”  
Carey paused at that, his mind going haywire.  
“What do you mean by that? What do you think he’s done?” he frowned.  
“I don’t know and like I said, I don’t want to know,” Alex insisted, “it can’t have been anything good.”  
Carey sighed, sliding his fingers through his hair.  
“Keep an eye on the media just in case,” he suggested, “we don’t want anything blowing up.”  
“I didn’t think of that,” Alex muttered, scooting his chair across to another monitor.  
“I’d ask if you’re okay but it definitely sounds like you’re not,” Carey’s brow rose.  
“Nope.”  
“Anything I can do from here?”  
“Nope, unless you want to have a talk to Jesse and find out what he did.”  
“It sounds like you won’t get any sleep unless you at least check,” Carey reasoned, “you should turn the cameras on.”  
“Maybe I will, but not right now,” Alex insisted, “their plan is to contact the Hansons and reunite. They might be on the road for a day or so yet.”  
“As long as they get out of Nevada without a tail they should be okay,” Carey figured, “but I thought Jesse was still being traced?”  
“Don’t know the status of that either,” Alex admitted, “he didn’t give me a lot to work with.”  
“I hope this won’t turn into a habit.”  
“Like it did with you?” Alex couldn’t help but smirk.  
“I’m not that bad, am I?” Carey frowned.  
“I’m kidding,” Alex insisted, “it’s cool. And I was trying to be careful with Jesse but he backed me into a corner.”  
“Sorry about that,” Carey winced, “if Mark had been here I would have sent him after him.”  
“You still don’t know what he’s doing?”  
“Taking time off as far as I’m aware,” Carey shrugged, “he doesn’t seem to care about what’s going on and in a way I don’t blame him. This thing has gone to hell in a handbasket crazy fast.”  
“We kinda knew it was a possibility,” Alex shrugged, “and one which I’m really, very sorry for.”  
“What do you mean?” Carey frowned, “what do you have to be sorry for?”  
There was a pause on the line as Alex struggled to find the words.  
“I think it was my fault,” he admitted shyly, “I don’t know what I did wrong, but I had your files. I knew your addresses. I knew where you guys went to work, where you went to school… It was all here and I don’t know, maybe I was hacked and I just didn’t notice.”  
“I would have thought someone like you would notice,” Carey didn’t want to call him paranoid and figured this was the easiest backup.  
“I should have!” Alex insisted, “I don’t know what I did wrong!”  
“Could someone have broken in physically?” Carey suggested, having never seen his house, “and looked at those files without you knowing?”  
Alex paused again, his hands on his head as his mind raced.  
“Maybe,” he responded after a while, “I didn’t think of that either.”  
“What’s your home security like?”  
“It’s good, I mean… I have a lot of equipment. I just have to be watching at the right time. It’s why I didn’t see them watching the house,” he admitted, “maybe I need to go back a few weeks and see if I recognise any faces that came to the door.”  
“There’s something for you to focus on at least,” Carey pointed out, “will you be okay?”  
“Yeah. Sure. Fine.”  
“Call me if anything comes up?”  
“I always do,” Alex agreed, “let me know if you hear from Jesse again.”  
“I will. Bye Alex.”

Carey set the phone on the counter and looked towards the kitchen clock. Emma should have been home before now and he was starting to get a little worried. He was distracted again by the phone ringing.  
“What _now_?” he moaned, reaching over for it.  
He winced when he saw that it was Mark, but quickly answered.  
“Yeah?”  
“Hey remember when Colin said he had a bunch of safe houses down south somewhere?” Mark’s voice came through.  
“No?” Carey raised a brow.  
“When he was talking about disappearing, he said he had some properties that there were no electronic records of,” Mark explained, “I think I just found them.”  
“So?” Carey shrugged.  
“So… don’t you think these might come in handy now for a couple of people who need to disappear?”  
Carey hesitated before suddenly realising what he was talking about.  
“You want to send Taylor to one?” he guessed.  
“Or his parents. Or his brother. I don’t care, the option’s there. It’s probably not something that should be discussed over the phone though.”  
“You have a point.”  
“I usually do.”  
“So how?” Carey raised a brow.  
“Uh… let me get back to you on that. Where are they now?”  
“I don’t know for sure but I’m guessing they were heading east out of Nevada so… they’ve probably reached Texas by now.”  
“Right. They might not want to go much further. If you talk to them anytime soon just get them to stop,” Mark suggested.  
“Okay,” Carey’s eyes narrowed, “and when are you coming home?”  
“When I feel like it, unless you have a better reason,” Mark scorned, “I’ve even started making friends with the door guy Ronaldo. He thinks I’ve got an acting role in some upcoming blockbuster and keeps asking about it. I don’t even remember what storyline I came up with anymore.”  
“Be careful who you’re making friends with,” Carey warned, “you don’t know who’s watching for what reasons.”  
“Thanks Mr Paranoid but I think I’m okay.”  
“I’m not just talking about the scientists,” Carey insisted, “you know the kind of shit Colin was into. All you need to do is not answer Colin’s cell phone when Russo calls and you could be getting surprise visitors in the middle of the night.”  
“Not in this place,” Mark insisted, “but I don’t even know where his cell phone is. It’s probably back at the labs if he had it when they picked him up.”  
“Just because a place looks secure it doesn’t mean it is,” Carey point out, “don’t get complacent.”  
“Yeah whatever,” he could hear Mark rolling his eyes, “it’s nothing I can’t handle Care.”  
“Yeah well you haven’t dealt with the mob before,” Carey was showing his worry, “let alone what other kinds of trash Colin deals with on a daily basis. I’m guessing his wife isn’t there.”  
“She’s not, and it doesn’t look like she’s been home in a long time,” Mark confirmed, “I found signs of a struggle in one of the bedrooms which I’d wager a guess happened when they took her. My guess is either Morris still has her or – like Colin said she might – she’s done a runner. And who could blame her if she has?”  
“We don’t know if she had family here, do we?”  
“Nope he never said. I hope for her sake she had a boyfriend though.”  
Carey smirked.  
“Can’t argue with that. I hope she’s free,” he shook his head.  
“We’ve got no way of knowing unless Alex can get back into the labs.”  
“Yeah about that…” Carey pulled a face, “he’s worried about what Jesse’s done so he’s too scared to look right now. But I’m hoping I’ll get him back onto it as soon as possible.”  
“What does he think Jesse’s done?” Mark frowned.  
“I don’t know, maybe he thinks he hurt some people,” Carey shrugged, “I haven’t got confirmation from anyone about anything other than him getting Taylor out.”  
“Wouldn’t have thought Jesse would have it in him,” Mark said thoughtfully.  
“I guess we’ll find out.”  
“Yeah…”  
“I’ll give them a call now and tell them about the safe houses,” Carey rubbed his face, “I’m still waiting for Emma to get home.”  
“Really?” Mark checked his watch, “that’s weird. Is she okay?”  
“We haven’t been great,” Carey admitted, “this whole thing is taking a lot out of her, and I get it. I haven’t really been able to spend as much time with her as we’d like because I’m busy dealing with all this bullshit.”  
“It can’t last forever,” Mark tried to reassure.  
“Yeah but we can’t wait forever either,” Carey sighed, “and I want to marry her _so_ bad.”  
“So do it,” Mark shrugged, “you’re a millionaire now, what’s stopping you?”  
“Not quite,” Carey smirked again, “I paid off my loans yesterday.”  
“Debt free?”  
“Debt free, so there’s nothing really stopping us but time.”  
“Well once we get Taylor and Jesse out of the line of fire, maybe you can do something about that.”  
“I hope so,” Carey scratched at his head, “I really hope so. But I really wish she’d text me or something to let me know where she is. She’s nearly two hours late now.”  
“I’m sure it’s nothing. Maybe her phone’s dead and she caught up with a friend.”  
“I hope so,” Carey repeated, “I might text Rachel and see if she’s heard from her.”  
“I’ll let you go do that,” Mark began to sign off, “I’ll call you if I come up with something.”  
“And I’ll keep you updated,” Carey promised, “otherwise I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”


	10. Part Ten

Jesse watched their surroundings with a careful eye as Taylor made his way over to the motel room door. Moments earlier they’d seen Natalie enter with the kids and Jesse had made him wait a while longer to make sure it was safe.  
His eye locked to the door as it opened and Taylor was immediately enveloped in a hug. It took a while for it to break, but when it did Taylor glanced back over his shoulder toward him before disappearing into the room.  
With a sigh Jesse picked up his cell phone and searched for Carey’s number. Double checking that Taylor was gone, he dialled and put it to his ear.  
“Did you forget something?” was Carey’s answer, sounding a little dishevelled.  
“No,” Jesse replied, “but now that Tay’s gone I need to talk to you about something.”  
“Any chance it can wait? Emma hasn’t come home yet and I’m-“  
“There’s another clone,” Jesse spat out, making the line fall silent.  
He paused to wait for any reaction from Carey before deciding to go on.  
“At the labs. He looked me dead in the eye when I walked in there and didn’t flinch.”  
“Are you sure?” Carey frowned, “is Colin alive?!”  
“Well he didn’t have a hole in his head,” Jesse reasoned, “but I never heard him talk, so…”  
“It might have been the French one,” Carey picked up on, “poor son of a bitch.”  
“I don’t know about that,” Jesse continued to look around, “he seemed pretty happy to me.”  
“What do you mean?”  
“I mean he was in a doctor’s get up, not the kind of plain clothes they put on Tay and Colin. He wasn’t being experimented on, it’s like he was one of them.”  
Another pause on the line as Carey digested this.  
“Alex didn’t think he’d been involved yet,” he said thoughtfully, “maybe he’s already more involved than the rest of us. Did you get a name?”  
“No, I was kind of busy,” Jesse admitted, “and I didn’t hear him talk. He had ID but I didn’t get close enough. He was on the other side of a window. Thought I was looking in a mirror for a second it was weird.”  
“I get it,” Carey agreed, “I haven’t heard from Alex in a few hours but when I talk to him again I’ll see if he’s caught anything on security or through their records.”  
“You’d think he would have mentioned something like that,” Jesse’s eyes narrowed.  
“I don’t know,” Carey shrugged, “but I’m going to find out. He also thinks he might have been the one responsible for us all being found. Said he had files on all of us at his home, and I’m thinking maybe someone broke in to have a peek.”  
“But how would they have found him to begin with?” Jesse frowned.  
“Who knows? Maybe he tried to hack them and got caught or something,” Carey suggested, “I feel like he might not be telling us everything.”  
“And why would he?” Jesse pointed out, “people tend to like having that kind of control. Like the control you had over Taylor.”  
Carey paused, and they could both feel the sudden tension.  
“What did you do at the lab, Jesse?” he asked straight out.  
“What I had to,” Jesse insisted, “and now I need to go and find my wife again. Talk soon.”  
He ended the call before Carey could respond, turning the phone off and throwing it aside before starting up his truck. One last glance back at the room Taylor had gone into, and he was back on the road.

“It’s good to hear from you.”  
“It’s good to finally be able to call!” Taylor insisted, “is everyone okay?”  
“Yeah we’re fine. Not quite sure what to do at this point but we’re fine.”  
“I got a few ideas,” Taylor went on, “uh… Colin, one of the clones, he had some safe houses somewhere around Texas and Louisiana, so we could go that option. Or… we could just bolt and head overseas.”  
“I spoke to Zac about that,” Isaac admitted, “he can’t get Lucy a passport.”  
“I know, but we can’t exactly travel together anyway,” Taylor pointed out, “so maybe he could head for Texas and the rest of us could leave. It’s just a thought.”  
“Where would you go?”  
“I’m thinking south,” Taylor couldn’t help but daydream a little at the idea, “maybe Cancun. Give the kids some time on the beach and us some time to sort things out. Decide what we’re going to do.”  
“That sounds great,” Isaac assured, “I think Mom and Dad might have the same idea.”  
“Yeah I didn’t leave things off too great with Dad,” Taylor scratched at his head, “and I guess that whole family meeting thing didn’t happen, so-“  
“Actually it did.”  
Taylor froze in his pacing. He took a moment to snap out of it.  
“It did?” he had to confirm.  
“Yeah. They told me everything. Me and Nicole,” Isaac didn’t sound happy, “or what I hope is everything, I’m not sure I want to know anything else at this point.”  
“So what do you know?” one of Taylor’s eyes narrowed, not sure what his parents would have said.  
“That I’m apparently this ‘Baby Zero’ that everyone’s so enamoured with and so technically I’m like a father to all you guys.”  
“Ew, no,” Taylor instantly scowled, “not quite, but nice try.”  
Isaac chuckled to himself.  
“Did they say anything else?”  
“What else should they have said?” Isaac decided to test the waters.  
“I don’t know, I don’t think they’ve told me everything either,” Taylor admitted.  
“Just that we’re all in trouble,” Isaac relented, “which I guess is obvious now. They convinced us that we needed to leave town and then Zac got the call from Jesse and now here we are.”  
“So what’s your plan?” Taylor asked, “do you have one? Are you guys going overseas?”  
“I’ll talk to her about it. I mean we can, it’s just… getting out without being noticed I guess.”  
“Yeah I’m a little worried about that too,” Taylor admitted, “we don’t know how far their surveillance stretches. We don’t know what part of the government they belong to so we don’t know what they might be in league with.”  
“Which is something else Mom and Dad probably should have told us.”  
Taylor sighed to himself, looking over his shoulder back toward the motel room he’d stepped outside of.  
“I think Nat and I are going to do it,” he confirmed aloud, “we’ll leave the country. At least for a while. I can call you when I have it all confirmed.”  
“And I’ll let you know what we decide when we decide it,” Isaac assured.  
“Good luck,” Taylor’s brow rose.  
“You too. I think we’re all going to need it.”

“Finally!” Carey frowned as Alex answered his call, “what were you doing?!”  
“Nothing,” Alex answered a little too quick, “what were you doing?”  
“I just got off the phone with Jesse,” Carey’s eyes darted, “Taylor’s been safely dropped at the motel and he’s gone back to find his wife.”  
“Okay.”  
There was a pause, and Carey couldn’t hear the usual background noise that came with Alex’s calls. He frowned to himself wondering how to approach it.  
“Alex are you okay?” he finally asked.  
“Nope. No I’m not.”  
“What’s wrong?”  
Another pause.  
“Carey I turned the feeds back on. I saw what Jesse did.”  
Carey sighed to himself, leaning back into the counter top.  
“How bad is it?” he dreaded asking.  
“Carey he killed them,” Alex had trouble getting out, “like it was nothing. He just walked in and shot the guards and like took everyone else hostage.”  
Carey hung his head feeling a shiver run down his spine. He hadn’t wanted to entertain the original thought, but now that it had been confirmed… in all the times he’d spoken with Jesse he’d never have thought he’d resort to something like this.  
“Are you there?”  
“Yeah, yeah I’m here,” Carey cleared his throat, “how many dead?”  
“At least three but he went off camera a few times so I don’t know for sure.”  
“That could be worse,” Carey winced.  
“You’re not seeing it! This is _bad_! It’s like he’s not even human!”  
“Alex calm down.”  
“And that’s not even all!”  
“What’s not all?” Carey frowned again.  
“I did some more digging,” Alex admitted, “after I saw this. Because this is _not_ normal and I needed some kind of reason for him to go off the deep end. I mean if he was getting psychiatric help or something, what’s to say we’re not gonna get sick too?! What’s to stop the rest of us from snapping and taking out random people?!”  
“They were hardly random,” Carey had to defend, “he went in on a mission.”  
“Exactly, a mission,” Alex insisted, “that’s exactly what it was.”  
“What did you find?” Carey demanded, trying to keep him on track.  
“A lot,” Alex insisted, “a whole lot. I don’t know how I didn’t see it before and I don’t know how the doctors never found it out, but Jesse Musgrove sure as Hell is not who he says he is.”

Carey jumped up the moment the front door opened. Emma jumped at least three inches when his arms appeared around her shoulders.  
“Hi,” she said flatly.  
“I was so worried, you have no idea,” Carey said into her shoulder, before quickly kissing her neck and pulling away.  
“I texted you,” she frowned, setting her things down.  
“I know, but not until long after I was panicking.”  
“Sorry about that,” she winced, “but I bought take out? Enough for two, in fact? Maybe even three?”  
Carey took the bag she held out, having a quick look.  
“And we need to talk,” she said seriously.  
“Sounds serious,” he mused for a second, “but yeah we do. I’ll get some plates.”  
He disappeared into the kitchen as she headed for the bedroom to get changed. By the time she appeared again he had the table set and ready.  
“So where were you?” he asked, still with a hint of worry.  
“Nope, you first,” she insisted as she took a seat, “I said we needed to talk and you agreed really fast. What’s up?”  
Carey grunted to himself, knowing he wouldn’t win any debate. He took a set across from her and started to pour their drinks.  
“I used the money to pay off my student loans yesterday,” he revealed.  
“Well done,” she smiled, “go you.”  
“Thanks,” he smiled back, “but I’ve been thinking all day about what comes next. I know I’ve been a complete pain in the ass lately with this whole clone thing-“  
“I know you can’t help it,” she insisted.  
“Taylor’s fine by the way,” he quickly interjected, “Jesse dropped him off about a half hour ago.”  
“Good,” she nodded to herself, starting to collect her food.  
“But now that that’s over…” his eyes fell to the table, “I really, _really_ want to marry you.”  
“You’re lucky you already did the one-knee thing because this proposal would have sucked, just so you know,” Emma smirked.  
“I’m trying,” Carey scoffed, “but I’m also serious. I think we should get married in Hawaii. Away from all of this… drama and chaos. We need somewhere we can just be _us_ , and be us – together.”  
“And that has to be Hawaii?” her brow rose.  
“It can be anywhere you want it to be, I just want it to be with you,” he insisted, “and I’m ready to go whenever you say the word.”  
She stared at him for a while, watching as he began to eat before realising what she was doing.  
“What?” his face went slightly red.  
“I was late because I had a doctor appointment,” she admitted, setting her drink down that she’d only just picked up, “I don’t think we’ll be going anywhere for a while. It looks like you’ve given me the Egyptian flu.”  
“The what?” Carey frowned, confused.  
“The Egyptian flu,” her eyes shone, “you know, I’m going to be a mummy.”  
It was Carey’s turn to stare, but this time she couldn’t keep a straight face.  
“Are you serious?” he finally broke the silence.  
“I don’t joke about the Egyptians,” she scorned, making him get to his feet.  
He closed the distance between them and grabbed her into a tight hug, making her laugh.  
“Oh my God,” he said under his breath, “this is incredible. _Now_ will you run away with me?!”


End file.
